Last Friday, I set out on a lovely Spring day to hike a trail that had been on my To Do list for quite a while: The Wapack Trail!
For those who don't know, this is a 21.5 mile trail that runs north-south from North Pack Monadnock in Greenland, NH to Mt Watatic in Ashburnham, Mass. It crosses several small (~2000 feet or less) mountain peeks, follows alongside ponds, wetlands, woods, fields, and rocky ledges. I observed prominent views of Mt. Monadnock (the #1 most hiked mountain in the world??) all along the way. The Wapack Trail passes through both public and private lands, and camping is only allowed at one private campground (www.windblowncamping.com), which you must reserve in advance. If you are going southbound, once you hit Massachusetts, you can continue to keep going south beyond Mt. Watatic along the Midstate Trail (which then connects to the North-South Trail in Rhode Island, so you could potentially hike all the way down to the ocean if you wanted!).
I reserved a shelter for the night, East Glade Shelter. The shelter was tucked a good distance away from the trail, but this added to a feeling of seclusion as I had it all to myself. "But how do you camp in a shelter if you have a hammock?" You may ask. Well, it wasn't the greatest solution, but the shelter had some good strong beams that I used to suspend my Warbonnet Blackbird from. I lit a nice fire in the woodstove and got in my hammock for a well-earned lay down. That was when I realized "this is a terrible hang" as the ridgeline sagged low and the bugnet was all up in my face. Also, I couldn't lay completely flat so I was basically a banana. But it was so nice and warm by the woodstove, I didn't want to move. So that was how I slept. And really, it wasn't a terrible sleep all things considered. I did wake up at 4am to add more wood to the stove, but other than that, I slept like a baby.
For more information on my trip, check out the video I made:For anyone wanting to hike this trail, here are a few things I learned on my trip: Ticks are out! I found 2 on my pants while hiking through the tall grass to the shelter. And, the northern 10-11 miles are very dry, except for a water spigot on top of Pack Monadnock. So definitely bring lots of water for that stretch. After that, there are flowing streams, and a water spigot at Windblown for campers.
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